Glad that Blogger is back up and runnning. Some ne’er do wells have way too much time on their hands!

Busy week on the work front and I finally bit the bullet and started a project at home that is way overdue. And of course, as you might predict, since I’m now under the gun, everything that COULD go wrong certainly did and is. Hate that. And I even gave up and bought a book about the project and that didn’t work either. Yes I did follow the simple sounding instructions and No, it didn’t work at all better than it had previously. And then it took my whole program down and apparently trashed the mostly done document with it.

Now there’s under-the-gun angst for you. Mind you, the actual document that I need to go to the printer is 95% done and it’s fine. So what am I agonizing over? I’m trying to get a document from WordPerfect (yeah yeah yeah, I know) which is a classic application, to any OS X application. My plan is to format it to match the original and then to “print to PDF” so that I can skip the html nightmare of getting the document into web format. uh huh. sounds simple and let me just say, so far it ain’t. So the time saving, at least this time around is long gone. I was hoping though if I could bring this long-standing project into a more modern software that next year it would be smooth sailing. A girl can hope, can’t she?

Work was busy and constant for the most part. The really nasty last minute shoppers didn’t seem to come back the day after Christmas as I feared. Maybe they were too exhausted from last minute shopping and then all-night wrapping?

OK, back to work now for awhile on this fool’s mission.

I hope you all had a lovely day, because we sure did. First off, I stayed up way late last night doing the “Sandy Claws” thing for the kitties. I made 8 felt mice each with a gold cord tail, lovely little ears and stuffed with catnip. I let them sit in the catnip bag for the rest of the night and tossed them out this morning, much to the joy of all the cats. Little Gus in particular is fond of playing with this sort of toy, pitching it up over and over again.

On to my parents house for the holiday doings. A quick breakfast and then Mike, Peg, Kate and Andy arrived and the gift opening began. Some fabulous prezzies. The boxes I opened included this prize, a match to last year’s Monkey Bowl. It was indeed – an amphibian, dressed in period clothing, playing a musical instrument. Who knew?

My brother enjoyed his special present from me – a maple syrup jug packed full of new hankies. That was fun to watch being opened. Although this gift wasn’t in the same league as the amphibii, Mike seemed to enjoy this addition to their household.

After an afternoon break (including a rare nap for me) we re-gathered, waiting for Ron to come so we could open more presents and have dinner. Ron’s gifts included a mate to the amphibian, so we are blessed with a pair! Kate and Andy relaxed as well. Peg tried out her new digital camera.

A good time was had by all.

I’m giving a small calendar with images taken in the last year as gifts this year and this is part of the enclosed note:

In the last year, I’ve become more sure that it’s important to take notice of what’s around us. I’m glad for what I see each day, no matter if it’s sunny or rainy.
I’m grateful for the people who are in my life, in each day or in my memories; those who share my passions, those who share their own with me; those who are near and dear and those who share only a brief hello on the way to daily work. Thank you all for being a part of my life!

Grey rainy Christmas Eve. I think my ice luminaria have reverted to puddles. Better ask Santa for a cold night or two for New Year’s luminaria.

Had my interview with Ottawa radio about fruitcake — John Lacharity was very nice and the interview should air on Thursday.

Here’s an article about shoppers and the retail workers. I are one of those now, remember!

Happy last minute shopping everyone, and may all your fruitcake and eggnog be good.

So I made a couple batches of cookies, but nowhere near the variety as I have in the past. Alas, time has run out for cookie making…. Still and all, they’re pretty tasty! Peanut butter, gingersnaps, a no-name cookie that’s baked in two successive layers, and quite possibly the best Sandies recipe in the whole world. Actually I think all of these cookies are the best in their class, so pull up a glass of milk and have one or two of each.

Other than that, it’s been one big wrapping night. I’m closing in on done, but I think there will be a few to do tomorrow night as well. Well I better be off to bed – big interview with John Lacharity tomorrow morning for Ottawa Morning on CBC radio! It’s still all about the fruitcake!